Do the math. House #1 is 6,500 square feet and house #2 is 3,250 square feet. Assuming the cost per square foot of each house is the same and the difference in price between the 2 houses is $850,000, what is the price of house #2?

Time was when children got their moral direction from parents. Now parents apparently get their moral direction from children.

I really can't blame them for moving into a smaller house. It is their life and their money. But if they really feel that doing so is such a moral imperative, is there anything more pathetic than having to be told so by their child?

I was all set to comment, then I read what others posted and I have hardly anything to add to what Synova wrote.

She's right; 3250 sq. ft. is still a pretty big place.

I'm an atheist and I don't think anybody is going into a kingdom of heaven. But I remember enough about Christian teachings to question why what this family did is receiving so much media attention. Isn't charity supposed to be a private thing? Why are they tooting their horn?

Not letting on what your charity giving or tithe is is more of a guideline than a rule. The passage about that just pretty much says that when you toot your own horn about it the reward you receive here and now is the one you get.

If you get a building with your name on it, what you get is a building with your name on it.

The sentence following that Bible verse (Mt 18:3) is "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Jesus was answering the disciples' question, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

i always thought the south park episode where they tried to rescue a killer whale was the best answer to the notion that we should listen to children on any matter of importance.

And for those who didn't see it, here's what happens, spoilers and all. Kyle goes to a sea-world kind of park, and after hours, some kids working there play a prank to make him think the killer whale is actually an alien from the moon kept prisoner. So the kids work to "free" whale, while an environmentalist idiot drones on about how wise children really are. she just finishes saying that when the rocket is launched, with a rope attached that is tied to the killer whale's tail. it drags the whole thing up into space and the final shot is of a dead killer whale on the surface of the moon.

Point is, children are morons, and adults should not seek affirmation in their attitudes.

Assuming one doesn't already know how to do that, of course. The other part of that is teaching your child how to talk about substantive issues.

This was the easiest poll ever. Forget the "should" in the question, we do those things all of the time (since even before homeschooling, but especially since). Isn't that part of parenting 101, for crying out loud?

That said, we also stress to our son that while the U.S. is a republic, committed to the values of democracy, our home is more of a benevolent dictatorship operated according to the lights of the dictators, i.e. we the parents.

When he grows up, gets a job and establishes his own life and home, it'll be his turn.

Very strange. In theory I approve of downsizing and living more frugally, and I approve of charitable giving. But the ostentation of the story appearing in the NYT really sets my teeth on edge. "Our child is so morally sensitive!" "We are so humble! (In our million dollar home.)" "We are so generous!" You have to be careful with people who have been profiled in the NYT.

More and more we're slipping into a world where at school the state instructs kids on what's right and wrong. Then the kids come home and hound the parents.

3,250 sq ft is a big house. I grew up with 5 siblings and 2 parents in a house slightly under 3,000 sq ft. It was a big house. 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, living room, dining room, family room, study, rec room, kitchen, laundry room, etc.

Plus, if this couple was really dedicated to the cause, they would have destroyed their old house so that no one else could have an energy hogging oversized house. Or, at least only sold the house to someone with 12 kids or people wanitng to make a commune out of it. There should be maximum allowable square footage per person for the morally superior.

"Because, sweetie, we could afford 6,500 square feeet, we wanted it, and we worked hard to get it. If you want to be generous, donate something valuable of your own, not something that never belonged to you in the first place."

I live in a city with many homeless people. They survive, laugh, play, screw, get high, etc. Materially, there is little that any of us truly needs beyond what a homeless person has in a decent climate. Why do any of us have homes at all? This is the logical conclusion to such tripe.

We create more because that's what humans do. Nobody would ask why do ants have to keep building a bigger anthill. That's what they do. There are no longer any ants that ask that question. They all are extinct, like hippies.

My grandfather was on his own from age 17 or so. He worked and also attended college. It eventually left him so rundown and sick that he went to a doctor. Said doctor, treating the whole person and not the illness, loaned him enough money to finish up his studies. Now the understanding - and it was met - was that my grandfather would pay back that doctor. It certainly made Granddad a more productive citizen - MIT class of 1907 and a almost 50 year career as a civil engineer and eventually manager with the Southern Railroad. Judiciously done, loaning and even gifting money can be worthwhile. I have no idea if that doctor bragged up his good deeds, but I'll bet not. In that time, I'd also bet his kids, if he had any, had no input in the matter.

He has not yet answered his oldest child’s question directly. Why not? “The honest answer is my own fear about my son sharing it with his friends and it creating pain for them or emotional shame for their parents,” he said.

I like how he tells that. He leaves out the possibility that his kid might feel bad when Joey down the street says, "That's all your old man is worth?" And as for "emotional shame," is there any other kind?

My kids are more likely to tell me who they think is rich. When they see someone in a Jaguar, they say, "He must be rich!" Our response: "He used to be rich until he bought a Jag."

A pet peeve of mine is when the mega-rich set up a foundation to which they give their charitable donations so they can still maintain control of their money I guess?

WTF- there are plenty of charities out there already- so why not just pick one of the existing charitable groups {Mr. Gates or you Mr. Buffett} and give your megabucks donations to it. But no - they can't do that because the many of the rich are really different from the rest of us.

I would contend that a big part of your grandfather's success was that he was already a hard-working self-respecting man before he got the money. If he started out with the money first, he likely would have been robbed of the experience that made him strong enough to use it that successfully. The doctor surely seen this in him and thus made an investment not a hand out. He just didn't care if the return came back directly to him.

Give granddad more credit for his success. A lot of people get money, and only end up needing more.

Jesus sat down opposite the Temple treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling His disciples to Himself, He said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."--Mark 12:41-44

When our kids were in grade school, my wife and I owned a 2,500 SF home in a suburban city where some of the homes along the shore of Lake Michigan were as large as 20,000SF, plus detached out buildings.

Our kids' friends who lived in those large houses hated them. They felt lost and alone at times in their own homes because the scale of the buildings were not child-friendly.

The especially hated having their mom and dad in a bedroom on another floor, at the other end of the house, during storms or when the children were ill, or when spooky noises were heard at night.

I remember when on of my daughter's friends (in third grade)was walking through our house with our daughter and stopped and said "Hey, your bedroom is next to your parents' bedroom? That is cool!"

When I was a small lad, our house was condemned and torn down due to rat and termite infestation. I remember every morning we had to wait upstairs until Dad woke up and went downstairs to scare the rats back into the basement. Our house was constantly littered with poison, traps and every method of vermin control available to the poor. Often we would wake up to find large holes chewed in the rugs and furniture. Regardless, I still have the fondest memories of that house. I can still remember dreams I had at 3 years old. One was sexual. I'm a freak, I think.

Three bedroom, 1.5 bath, semi-detached red brick in the city. It was great for our family of six except when 3 of us were all teens and in high school. That made the bathroom a bit like Grand Central in the morning [and both Mom & Dad worked].

Reading these NYT articles makes me feel like I'm at a really snooty suburban cocktail party with a bunch of passive-aggressive social climbers. And I've been to a few of those - it is not pleasant.

Lately I've been getting these questions from one of my kids:

Why can't we go to Europe like all my friends?Why don't we have a pool in our backyard?When are we going to remodel our kitchen so it looks like so and so's?Why do we have to shop at Safeway? Why can't we get all our food from Whole Foods?When can you buy me $300 jeans?

As for the tool and his daughter in the article, my only hope is that he sends her off to some expensive college where she joins up with the Earth Liberation Front and drops out of school and ends up on the FBI's most wanted list for eco-terrorism. Would serve them both right.

@BJM, I was raised in a house that was over 50 years old some 40 years ago. The old coal-burning furnace had been converted to oil, and my Dad re-converted it to gas. My room was in what had been the attic and there was no radiator up there. No air conditioning either. Don't know how I got my studying done in a room that was that cold in the winter, but I knew I didn't want to work in the local quarry and that I had to get good grades to get into college.

Whenever I go back to visit my family in the small midwestern town where I grew up I make a point to drive past the old place -- it is still standing and probably will continue to be standing when the house I own today has crumpled into dust.

The house had only 1.5 baths for two adults and 3 teenagers, and it didn't even have that powder room until I was well into high school. And I mean bath -- no shower except something that my Dad eventually built in the unfinished part of the basement so he could clean up after a hard day's work.

You were [all] lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!

Your child may be an advanced moralist, but you as parents are morons. If you are taking your moral cues from you child, then you are indeed more childish than they are. What is happening to the collective adulthood in this country? I'm with DBQ on this. This is absurd.

My sister and her family lived in a verg big house [her husband was a cardiologist]. They came to visit me and my wife when we were first married and living in a 2nd floor 2 bedroom apt [about 700 sf].

They brought my two young nieces and one of them ran around our apt and then whispered to her mother "where is the rest of their house"? It was hilarious.

Kid is going to regret it when she gets old enough to need personal space and time to masturbate and have sex.

Still, I basically agree. I'd rather have more land and less house. I'm also a bit private and would prefer not having to deal with staff - that means less house is a plus for me. Why not just have rooms that you actually use?

That's a no to giving away the money though. I'd buy a bigger lot - or the house next door and knock it down.